Life, a question.

This is the text of the speech that won the first prize in intra-school English speech competition.

What life means to me?

One of the great minds of the twentieth century, George Orwell, has said, “The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.”

Good afternoon (…)

Oxford dictionary defines life as the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including capacity of reproduction, growth, functional activity and continual change preceding death. All of us here have our own meaning of life. Life for a student might be the pile of stacked up homework. Life for a teacher might be the late-night lesson plans.

Life to me is to be a human.

Many of you might ask yourself, “What is Bipana talking about?” Everybody is a human! But what I am talking is not about human being, it’s ‘bout being human.

Being human means to consciously do the best you can for everyone and everything you come in touch with, quote Sadhguru. Being human deals with interaction with other humans, the way we talk to them, the way we respond to them. It’s about the sense of responsibility and sense of realisation within oneself.

Human being is the gift of nature but we have to work a little extra to be a human. A lion is born to hunt for its food, roam around and live in the den. Does that lion have any value if it is imprisoned in a cage? Or if its kept under some areas with restrictions as some clowns in circus? Obviously no! Similarly, people, or humans, are born to be kind, gentle, wholehearted, and to promote love, respect, peace, harmony among ourselves and most importantly to be free doing what we aspire. When we are free, we learn. Learning makes us to do what we aspire and that is what we want. During learning and achieving our goal, we come in contact with many people. We try to be good with them. This, being good, is being human. Being human is one thing that makes us happy. Even if we become successful, renowned, liked, we might not find happiness because we might not be being a human. Therefore, my friends, it is an absolute necessity that we be humans.

Finally, the ultimate desire everyone has in life is happiness. For me, happiness only comes after being a true human. As I have already said, even a “perfect” person might not find happiness unless he is a decent human. Let us all try to be a good human, to be a true human, and a human with an impact—by being dutiful, sincere, helpful, and social. All of that is what life is to me.